Some nice pics from the Whitby show, courtesy of Davefish…
Downloads coming…
Up until now most of our records haven’t been available for download anywhere. That’s been deliberate, since we don’t approve of the restrictive Digital Restriction Management used by most download sites, or of their payment policies. However that’s about to change… We’re currently uploading Wetware, the Twice As Good EP, and Rodney’s Sun God album to several different sites. Within the next few weeks you should be able to get hold of them from eMusic, Amazon MP3, iTunes, and elsewhere. We’ll let you know when they appear on each site, it usually takes a few weeks after we sign the deal for them to be released to the public. Hopefully you’ll be able to download them for Xmas!
For those that have been looking for the earlier albums… more info about those coming shortly.
Whitby review
Got back from Whitby last night, after a long and fun-filled weekend…
Got up early on Friday to finish packing our gear. Poor Volker had to get up at 3.30am to get a plane from Hamburg to Manchester. Andy picked him up there at some ungodly hour while the rest of us hit the road to Whitby. It’s a lovely drive out to there, I love the North Yorkshire moors. We arrived around 12.30, well in advance of the 13.00 load-in time. Unfortunately soundcheck didn’t then start until after 15.00, so we mooched around for a bit at the Pavilion just taking in the vibe.
The PA was very harsh in the mid-range, leading Bob to have to do some serious EQ-ing on the desk, but we got it sounding half-decent. Monitoring was a bit of a pain, but we’ve had worse there too. So we got it all sounding ok and headed off for our hotel in the delightful village of Robin Hood’s Bay to try to get a little sleep before the show. Unfortunately in my room the heating was broken (do we see a pattern here?). This time it was jammed full on, so the place was like a sauna, even with all the windows fully open. I managed to get an hour’s nap, then we headed back to the show.
Got onstage just after 23.00 and I think we rocked out. Felt like a bit of an uphill struggle though, it’s always so hard when we play in the UK. People seemed to really like it, though English Goths don’t tend to jump around much.
We ended up queuing for (not very good) pizza at about 3 in the morning, then headed back to hit the sack.
Next stop: Brazil!
pics roundup
The gug_ru LiveJournal community has a list of places where you can find recent CX pics. I want to post some more here, but until then check out this list.
rehearsing in the cold
It’s getting really cold here in Manchester, and Paul, Andy & I have all been at CXHQ for the past couple of days rehearsing for the Whitby show (Volker is still stuck in Germany until Friday). The rehearsals are going great, but the heating system has broken down here, so we’re freezing. Oh well, at least the music sounds hot 🙂
Hopefully we’ll have the heating fixed tomorrow, until then we are huddling round a couple of electric heaters eating curry to stay warm…
Sao Paulo flyer
Sao Paulo date changed!
We’ve just changed the date of our forthcoming show in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It will now take place on November 30 – so if you’re planning to go, make sure you keep that in mind!
We’ve been rehearsing for the Whitby show and it’s sounding good, though we had to do less than we anticipated owing to me catching the flu and being unable to sing for a week 🙁
On the positive side however, we might be doing a small secret warm-up show the night before Whitby, somewhere in the North of England. If you’d like to go, leave a comment and we’ll make sure to let you know where…
Rodney appears in the new Pet Shop Boys video
Rodney (accompanied by CX live mixer Bob & merchandising person Cathryn) is in the video for the new Pet Shop Boys single Integral! You have to watch carefully, but you’ll see him flicker past near the end. Here’s a still from it:
WGT review
There’s a great review of the Wave Gothic Treff show at Nemesis To Go
There’s one more band to go. The headliners are due on stage any minute. Suddenly, a backdrop of LEDs blazes into life, as if someone’s tapped a vein of raw electricity. Shadowy figures take up instruments. This is Cassandra Complex, a band with a convoluted past that goes back to the 80s in the UK, and a slightly more recent status as alternative rock heroes in Germany. Like many bands with a lengthy history, Cassandra Complex have gone through many line-up changes and periods of not-doing-much, or only-doing-stuff-in-the-Continenal-scene, to the point where the band’s UK profile has in recent years barely risen above earthworm level. Significantly, while several Cassandra Complex pages exist in various international editions of Wikipedia, the English-language entry is brief, basic – and written in the past tense. Here at the WGT, however, the band members – the original line-up, no less – are hailed as conquering heroes as they emerge from the shadows, with main man Rodney Orpheus recieving his own ovation. And it doesn’t let up from that point forward. The band crank it like good ‘uns, kicking up a driving, thunderous, rhythmic onslaught that sweeps all before it. Curiously, given that in certain quarters Cassandra Complex are hailed as pioneers of EBM, it’s unashamedly guitar-driven music (just in case we haven’t twigged, the guitarist demonstrates a fine repertoire of plank-hero postures throughout the set) that tips its hat to ye olde rock ‘n’ roll even as it eats the big dancefloor beat. Rodney Orpheus himself is obviously revelling in the experience – fronting a pounding behemoth of a band, before a crowd of cheering fans – well, it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, innit? Unashamedly milking the adulation, he strikes messiah poses that would seem downright Spinal Tap-ish were it not for the big grin on his face. He even indulges in some quality crowd surfing, trusting the fans to bear him off into the hinterland of the audience and then return him stagewards just in time for the chorus. It all fits, and it all works: the celebratory atmosphere, the ever-shifting LED array strobing over everything, and the beat that just doesn’t quit – if ever there was a situation where all the threads are pulled together into a glorious whole, we’re witnessing it now.
Special discount offer in our Custom Store!
Until September 30 you can get a discount of 2 GBP (British pounds) off any item in our Custom Store. Just follow the link and use the code: KJWHRQE2YV0O